Naoya Kihara Wins Back-to-Back WSOP Bracelets in Stud Championship

It took Naoya Kihara 5,103 days to win his second WSOP bracelet. His third took just three.

After winning the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship, Kihara jumped into the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship and went on to top the 130-entry field, defeating $1,500 Seven Card Stud champion James Cheung heads-up to capture $301,970 from the $1,209,000 prize pool.

The man who fired the starting pistol on Japanese bracelet winners at the WSOP now stands alone — a trio of titles to his name, pulling clear of Ryutaro Suzuki and Shiina Okamoto to the summit of his nation’s all-time leaderboard.

But perhaps what’s most remarkable is how he got there.

Winning back-to-back championship events is a feat so rare it has been achieved only five times in WSOP history. Before Kihara, only Doyle Brunson, Stu Ungar, Greg Merson, George Danzer, and Jason Mercier had ever done it.

What makes it all the more extraordinary still is what Kihara told PokerNews after the first of his two victories, that he was ‘almost retired… thinking about quitting tournament poker.’

Now, late on a Nevada night at Horseshoe & Paris, seated at the very same table, in the very same seat where he ended that 14-year bracelet drought just days ago, the man from Tokyo became the first double bracelet winner of the series and has rightfully earned his place among the greats.

$10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship Final Table

Yet Kihara was quick to dismiss any notion that he had suddenly unlocked a secret formula.

“I need luck also to win the tournament. For a few days, I’m really lucky”

“Poker is a mix of luck and skill,” he said after securing bracelet number three. “I’m pretty sure I have enough skill, but I need luck also to win the tournament. For a few days, I’m really lucky.”

Despite becoming Japan’s most decorated WSOP player, he felt the milestone was overdue.

“For me, it’s too late,” he laughed. “I should have done it before.”

Late or not, Kihara now stands alone atop Japan’s bracelet leaderboard. And if his final answer of the night is anything to go by, he isn’t planning on stopping at three.

“At least one more [bracelet] I need.”

Final Day Action

Dan Sepiol, Maksim Pisarenko, and Brad Ruben fell within the first hour of play, setting the official final table. Jason Kluska, who began the day with just one big bet, was next out in eighth place, followed by two-time WSOP bracelet winner and stud specialist Ryan Miller in seventh.

WSOP Main Event champion Michael Mizrachi started the day atop the chip counts, but “The Grinder” gradually slid down the leaderboard as the field shortened. There were flashes of another trademark comeback, something he’d pulled off several times during the tournament, but Chris Brewer brought his run to an end after making trip threes to crack Mizrachi’s buried aces.

Brewer, who snapped an almost year-long live tournament cash drought earlier in the series, was making his second final table of the summer. However, another deep run ended in heartbreak. Long plagued by brutal beats on poker’s biggest stages, Brewer suffered another cruel exit when Jeremy Ausmus found a full house on seventh street to crack Brewer’s flush.

After the dinner break, Cheung took control of the tournament, battering Ausmus in a series of pots as he repeatedly made strong holdings to reduce the field to three.

Then came the Allen Kessler resurgence. As Cheung and Kihara traded blows, Kessler quietly rebuilt his stack, stringing together a few timely pots to briefly move into the chip lead. The momentum, however, was short-lived.

Backed by the largest rail in the room, Kessler was outdrawn in a pair of crucial pots against Cheung and Kihara that left him on the ropes. With little ammunition remaining, he was eliminated by Kihara shortly afterward to a standing ovation.

That left Kihara and Cheung to battle for the bracelet. It was a fitting heads-up clash between two players already enjoying standout summers. Kihara was looking for consecutive championship titles, while Cheung was aiming to make WSOP history as the first player to win both the $1,500 and $10,000 Seven Card Stud events in the same series.

“Today, I was really lucky,” he said. “The last one [2-7 Championship], I had to have a lot of patience and today I kept getting really good hands. So I didn’t face many tough situations, just because I always got a good hand.”

That good fortune showed no signs of slowing down once heads-up play began. Holding the chip lead, Kihara never allowed his opponent back into contention, controlling the duel from start to finish in a one-sided affair that brought the tournament to a swift conclusion.

That wraps up PokerNews’ coverage of this event, but as always, be sure to stick around to keep up with all the action from the 2026 WSOP.

Calum has been a part of the PokerNews team since September 2021 after working in the UK energy sector. He played his first hand of poker in 2017 and immediately fell in love with the game.

Calum has written for various poker outlets but found his home at PokerNews, where he has contributed to various articles and live updates, providing insights and reporting on major poker events, including the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

Eliot Thomas is an Editor at PokerNews, specializing in casino and poker coverage. He has reported on major events around the world, including the World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour, and Triton Super High Roller Series.